Migrants’ caravan arrives at northern border to seek asylum in US

2 buses arrived yesterday in Tijuana and more are en route

Published on Wednesday, April 25, 2018

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Members of the migrant caravan that drew the ire of United States President Donald Trump earlier this month began arriving at Mexico’s northern border yesterday, despite warnings that any attempt to claim asylum in the U.S. would be futile.

News agency Reuters reported that dozens of Central Americans arrived at the border city of Tijuana late yesterday and two buses carrying around 130 migrant men, women and children had arrived by evening.

A further four buses were heading north from Hermosillo, Sonora, Reuters said last night.

Trump has ordered border security officials to repel the migrants, most of whom are fleeing violence or political persecution in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

The caravan — organized by migrant advocacy group Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders) — left Mexico’s southern border a month ago but stalled in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, after Trump unleashed a Twitter tirade against it.

Mexican authorities subsequently handed out temporary visas at the migrant’s makeshift camp in the town, legalizing their status in Mexico and allowing them to travel to the border.

Nevertheless, the caravan began to break up and the organizers said that it would end in Mexico City rather than at the Mexico-United States border as initially planned.

Some migrants chose to apply for asylum in Mexico instead while others returned to their home countries. Hundreds more opted to keep traveling to the border with the hope of receiving asylum in the United States.

But those hopes were dealt a blow Monday when U.S. authorities released statements saying they would drive the migrants back.

Trump wrote on Twitter that he had “instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large caravans of people into our country.”

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